


Bookland

by Neravirat



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Alice In Wonderland AU, Maybe - Freeform, Other, he doesnt stay dead, i might write a second thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-24 22:18:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3786328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neravirat/pseuds/Neravirat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The club runs into difficulties handling a book spirit of sorts and gets sent to a world it controls completely, leaving them with no choice other than to tell the story it wants them to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bookland

**Author's Note:**

> For the best effect, listen to Vanes by Kevin Macleod
> 
> I am actually really shocked I got this out on time, sorta. Anyway, I hope you guys like it and I hope it's not as boring as I felt it was while writing it!
> 
> He isn't dead pspsps, if I write the other bit I'll explain it.

It all started with a spirit hunt, nothing abnormal. Ed and Isabel encountered ghosts during their morning patrol that had been blubbering about a spirit in the forest that was terrorizing other specters. The two didn’t put it up high on their priority list and almost didn’t mention it to Mr. Spender, but they remembered the last time they didn’t tell him about a dangerous spirit and reported it immediately. Max, Isaac and Spender all seemed genuinely interested in finding out what the spirit was doing, and a mission was quickly planned out. At that point, they didn’t know it would be such a bad idea.

The spirit was a book-like creature of sorts, with six limbs that stretched out from the spine of the novel that made up its body. It seemed harmless at first, taking up their time to tell them stories. However, the more stories it told, the more they slipped into its control. They didn’t realize they were entranced until it was too late, not until after they’d been sucked into its pages.

They fell into an enormous room that held nothing but a small lantern on the ground with brown walls that seemed to continue up forever. The five of them went into a panic mode after they found out that their devices and powers weren’t working. They began searching for an exit, hands carefully feeling the visible walls for any signs of a hidden door. It hadn’t taken long for the kids to give up, there was no way out, there was no way to contact anyone and they were going to be stuck in that room for however long the spirit wanted them to be.

“Why the heck did we listen to those stupid ghosts?” Isabel muttered sadly from where she was sitting on the floor, her legs pulled to her chest. The only thoughts playing through her head were _‘we just got eaten, am I going to die? Is this our fault?’_

“It’s not like anyone _forced_ you to report what they were telling you.” The orange haired boy grumbled through his hands. It was clear he blamed Ed and Isabel for what was happening, and the way he peaked out from behind his fingers to glare at the darker skinned girl only reinforced it.

There was a long pause where nobody answered. Ed was busy comforting Isabel, Max was simply unable to grasp what was going on and Isaac, well… It just seemed like he was waiting for a reply so he could take out his frustration on someone.

“Isaac…,” Ed spoke softly, looking up from Isabel to give him an angry look through his broken glasses which had smashed when they’d fallen into the room. “This isn’t Izzy’s fault, or my fault, or anyone’s. We aren’t going to get anywhere if all you do is blame this on everyone else.” The blond muttered a quiet ‘this is your fault too’ after his sentence. It was barely audible, and the ones who were listening to the argument couldn’t decide if Ed had actually said anything or not.

Static crackled around the orange haired boy as he let out a loud groan. “There’s nothing we can do anyways! Have you paid any attention for the last… I don’t know, hour?” Isaac yelled, balling his fists at his sides. “We’re stuck in the belly of a six legged _book_ , probably being slowly digested. What does it matter if I decide to blame you two for getting us into this?” The tension in the room was heavy, and to Isaac it looked like no matter what they did, it would end badly.

“Please, quit the arguing.” Spender said suddenly with a disappointed sigh. The older blond stood up from where he’d been sitting near the back of the room. “It’s not going to help our situation, even if there isn’t a way out of this.” He said as he scratched the back of his head. “I think I have an idea of what’s going on.” Eight pairs of eyes turned to face Mr. Spender after he’d spoken, although Max seemed the least interested in what was going to be said.

Richard inhaled deeply before speaking. “I think this spirit is using us in a way that is similar to a battery.” The teacher made small hand movements as he spoke. “It ‘ate’ us so that it would have more power for longer. I think it might be feeding off of our spectral energy and using it to keep itself from being killed or… I guess in this analogy it would be to keep itself from ‘running out of power’.” The teacher rambled. What he was saying was logical, but…

“So that means we’re going to be stuck here forever as backup energy?” Max asked, sounding just as defeated as his expression had during his silence. The teacher clearly wished he hadn’t said it after seeing the looks of hopelessness on each of his student’s faces, but he still found himself nodding at Max’s question, even if it was reluctant. 

“Yes, we’re… backup energy.” He mumbled as he sank back onto the floor. Everything felt surreal, like what was happening _wasn’t_ happening, like it shouldn’t have been happening.

The five of them fell into a silence, each of them considering what life would be like, stuck in that room. How it would work, they weren’t sure. Would they still be nourished somehow, despite their lack of food, or would they…? None of them wanted to think about that, but it was all that was running through their minds. They didn’t know what was going to happen to them, or if they would ever make it out.

No one was sure how much time passed, but it seemed like an eternity before anybody spoke again. Strangely, that person that broke the silence was Max.

“H-hey… Was that thing always there?” The brunet asked with shock as he pointed at a silver platter at the edge of the light, the question catching everyone’s attention. The room had been empty, they’d searched it themselves. How could something just suddenly appear? Isaac opened his mouth to make a comment about Max losing his mind, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw that there actually _was_ something there.

When Max looked behind him to see everyone else frozen in shock, he slowly stepped towards the tray. As he got closer he noticed some things. There were five plates, each containing a tiny square of what looked to be a piece of cake and a strip of paper that read ‘FINISH THE STORY’ in bright, red ink.

What was it about the situation that seemed so familiar to him? The answer was like an itch at the back of his head, but it was always just out of reach, like when you think you see a light at the end of the tunnel but you can’t be sure if your eyes are playing tricks or not. There was the sound of footsteps and Max assumed the others had finally decided to take a look.

“Finish the story.” Their teacher said in a clear voice, it seemed obvious that the man was struggling to find the meaning behind it. Ed, Isaac and Isabel seemed to be having the same trouble as Max with remembering where the familiarity of the situation was coming from. After Mr. Spender had read the sentence aloud the letters began to blur and rearrange into a single word instead of three. ‘EAT’ the letters spelled, with five arrows pointing to each individual square of cake with a name written below it.

“That was… strange.” Isabel said in shock as she stepped beside Max to get a closer look. The irrationality of their situation suddenly hit them as they read the paper. None of them had told the spirit their names.

“Do you think we should?” Ed asked, glancing back and forth between the only adult in the room and the brown cake-like substance on the plates. Their options were severally limited, and they had no idea what would come out of the decision they made.

“I don’t see why not… I mean, they could be poisoned but what could be worse than a spirit using your life force as energy until the day you died?” The blond man said, unintentionally making each of the kids more reluctant to try whatever was laid out on the plates. “Sorry. I think we should. Our only other option is staying where we are and well… that doesn’t help us at all.” Spender reasoned as he knelt down and lifted the plate that had an arrow with his name. He was arguably not the best person to listen to, but he was the only adult and his thoughts were logical so trying the cake didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

Ed, Isabel, Isaac and Max picked up whatever plate they were assigned to and stared reluctantly at it, worried about what would happen if they did. Isabel was the first to shove the bite sized square into her mouth and when nothing bad happened, the others followed. Seconds, or maybe minutes passed after they had swallowed the strange food without any change. They were about to go back to sitting down where they had before when everything suddenly started shifting.

The room was shrinking and the ceiling that hadn’t been visible to them became clearer as the room got smaller. Max desperately tried to hang onto his baseball bat, but noticed it gradually became more and more difficult since the object was also getting smalle-—wait. Why would his bat be getting smaller if his clothes weren’t?

“Mr. Spender what’s happening?” Isabel said along with everyone else who shouted a variant of her sentence. Gradually, the size changing stopped and the five of them where pressing themselves against the walls in shock. The teacher didn’t have an immediate answer for her question, and instead just stood there panting. The only light was coming from the lantern, which was now a tiny spec where they used to be.

“Well, Isabel,” The blond man started as he adjusted the sunglasses on his eyes. “I’m not actually sure,” He paused to push his sunglasses onto his face. “I would say either the room shrunk, or we grew, but judging by how we ate something I think it’s more possible that our size has increased. The answer to why our clothes stretched with us is, unfortunately, that I have no clue whatsoever.” Mr. Spender shook nervously as he tried to use his abilities to shed a bit more light on their surroundings but gave up after a few minutes when it refused to work.

Ed opened his mouth to suggest someone trying to grab the lantern so that they could see their new surroundings, but he was cut off by a loud buzzing. Rings of lights that had previously been off and out of sight to the group started blinking on one after the other until the entire room was illuminated.

“This is so strange…” Isaac whispered, all the frustration from earlier gone as he rubbed his face with his hands. Lights didn’t normally flash into existence, unless of course it was caused by their teacher, but judging by the expression on his face it had nothing to do with him. Nobody responded to his comment, but they were all thinking the same thing.

Now, with the walls lit up by the buzzing rings of light they were able to see a box shaped hole and yet another tray with five circular plates, however this time there were teacups instead of cake. Past that, there was a long red carpet that lead up to a door at the end of the passage, the door (from their current perspective) looked to be about the same size as a small notebook. It was obvious to all five of them that if the last cakes made them grow, these would make them shrink.

Isabel hummed quietly before speaking in the clearest voice she could manage. “Okay so… How about we go one at a time?” She suggested, her voice only wavering slightly. “Whatever’s in there will probably make us our proper height, so if someone misses the ledge one of us could catch them.” There was a beat of silence as everyone considered what she’d said.

“What about the last person?” Ed said with a look of concern on his face. With no one to catch the person who went last if they fell, well… they’d keep falling until they hit the ground.

Isabel bit her lip when she realized what Ed meant. “Uh… well,” She tried to think of something that wouldn’t end in the last person _possibly_ living but she couldn’t. It was definitely a subject a twelve year old shouldn’t have to think about. “I don’t know.”

There was another beat of silence as everyone realized what missing the ledge without anyone to catch you meant. It looked like Ed was about to say something else when Spender held up his hand for the boy to stop. Once again, eight pairs of eyes looked up at their teacher in confusion but instead of defeat, they saw a look of nervous determination. “I’ll go last.”

“What? No!” Isabel and Ed shouted in unison, while Isaac and Max gave the teacher looks that ranged from confusion to concern.

The man sighed and shook his head. “As an adult, I think I should be the one to take the biggest risk. Besides, I am your chaperone and it’s my responsibility to make sure you four are safe.” Spender said, still nervous about what might happen but clearly set in his way. As much as they didn’t like it and wished nobody would have to be the last person, Mr. Spender didn’t seem like he was going to be swayed.

The other four, mostly Ed and Isabel, argued with the teacher and tried to come up with a better plan, but nothing came out of it and the five were forced to go along with Isabel’s plan. The first to eat the cake was Max then it Isabel, both of whom made it onto the ledge without a problem. Isaac fell, but with the help of Spender he made it up safely, the same went for Ed, minus the falling.

Isabel, Max, Isaac and Ed now stood on the ledge, staring anxiously up at their much larger teacher. They all backed up extra far to give him enough room to scramble on if he needed to while he reached down and picked up the teacup carefully between his index finger and his thumb. Everyone was on edge as Spender lifted the miniature cup and tilted it upside down onto his tongue. There was a moment before the size change began, and there was nothing to prepare them for what happened next.

Spender lurched forward to grasp the ledge as he started shrinking, but his hands got smaller at a much faster pace than the rest of him. He scrambled to stay on, pulling himself up as his size continued to decrease, but it was no use. His body was shrinking too fast for him to react and the kids were too far away to help him up. One second, Spender’s fingers were there, desperately clawing at the wall to stay on and the next… They were gone.

It happened in less than a second, the wails and shocked sobs escaped the children, those sounds quickly being mixed with a distant, horrifying sound that none of them wanted to hear again. What had happened felt fake, like they’d been lied to. It was like someone handed them a script that they didn’t want, but knew they had to go along with.

Ed was the one who dragged Isabel back when she ran forward, both to stop her from falling off and seeing… whatever there was to see. He whispered comfort to her between both of their sobbing as he pulled her into a tight hug while Max and Isaac sat alone in similar positions, staring with scared, shocked expressions with tears running down their faces. They could only imagine what it was like for Ed and Isabel, since they knew Spender longer and were much more attached. Isaac’s reasoning for not liking the blond haired man were in the past, he was just doing his job and suddenly every rude thing he’d said to Mr. Spender seemed unnecessary. Max’s was just that he never really knew him that well, he was just a teacher. However, death was still something the brunet couldn’t handle.

The group sat there for a very large chuck of time, and their wailing eventually faded to silence. None of them knew how to cope with what had just happened, and were stuck there terrified and unmoving. They were only children, they didn’t know how to deal with their teacher dying in front of them or how to continue with whatever they were doing here. They knew they were supposed to be ‘finishing the story’ but at that moment each of them wanted nothing more than for it to end right there because they just couldn’t handle what had happened.

Eventually the four of them convinced themselves that it was just a story and were in complete denial that Spender had actually just died. It was in this moment that they heard a voice speaking from outside the door.

“Hello? Are you still in there? It got quiet.” Whoever it was spoke with a soft, friendly voice. The idea that they weren’t alone anymore was a relief. Isabel lifted her head from where it had been resting on Ed’s shoulder to look towards the door.

“W-we’re still here.” Isabel said, her voice still heavy with tears. She was curious who was behind the doors, and it was exactly what the four needed to push them forward. A friendly creature in a story that appeared right after a major death was usually a helpful companion, right?

“Oh good,” whoever it was spoke eagerly accompanied by a small noise of relief. “So exactly… Who is we?” The voice asked curiously, clearly wanting to know who and how many were behind the door. The four of them scooted closer, with Isaac being the most reluctant to approach.

“Uhm… Max, Isaac, Isabel and Ed.” The blond boy said in a small voice. The typical, energetic Ed that everyone was used to seemed to have died with their teacher, leaving him silent and almost unmoving. “There used to be five of us, but…” He continued sadly, fighting off another wave of tears that rushed to his eyes.

There was a pause before the voice spoke again. “I’m sorry for your loss, but it’s nice to meet you four—er, well… sort of meet.” Whoever it was sounded sad for them, but still kept that happy undertone that made them sound friendly. “It’s just been awhile since we’ve had others show up.” When there was no answer the voice spoke again. “So, here’s the deal. You guys get through this door and you can meet everyone else! Maybe we’ll even get somewhere in our plans.” It’s voice was almost unbearably happy for the paranatural activity group, but they liked it more than the depressing mood that all of them were stuck in.

The four glanced around in confusion. How were they supposed to get out? They hadn’t seen anything when they’d first gotten onto the ledge, not that they had enough time to anyway.

“…How?” Isaac asked when he realized he was thinking what everyone else was.

There was a sound that sounded like a scoff coming from outside the door. “Use the key, silly! It should be on the table unless the book decided to switch things around.” Whoever it was said once again in a cheerful tone. They knew the voice meant the spirit when it said ‘book’, but did that mean it had complete control over them? Was all of this happening because it wanted it to? “Now hurry up! I want to properly meet you four.”

Ed, being the one closest to the door, stood up to look on top of the small table next to the door. He noticed with embarrassment that there was, in fact, a key. They’d felt lost and unsure of what to do when the answer had been sitting on top of a table only a few feet away. The blond boy sighed and held up the key, silently asking his friends if they thought it was a good idea to open the door, to which each of them responded with a shrug.

That answer seemed close enough to a yes for Ed, seeing as he quickly turned the key in the lock and opened the door. They were momentarily blinded as their eyes adjusted to the bright light outside of the door. After a few moments of pain from the glaring light, they looked out onto a beautiful garden with all kinds of flowers and plants, but strangely no ‘whoever it was’.

“Jeez… Open the door any faster, would you?” A voice piped up, but no person or thing could be seen. It seemed like whoever it was noticed this because they let out a loud cough. “Down here you!” It said with a laugh, drawing everyone’s attention to the door handle opposite the one that Ed had been holding. They stared at the creature perched on the handle. It was a mouse. They had been talking to a mouse. “Howdy doo.” It said with a smile as it tilted an imaginary hat on its head.

The four stood there staring wide eyed at the mouse—the talking mouse—that was sitting like nothing was out of the ordinary with a wide grin on it’s face.

“You’re a mouse?” Max asked in confusion. Animals didn’t normally talk, animals shouldn’t be allowed to talk. He didn’t need ghosts and talking animals to make themselves known to him in the same year.

The mouse on the handle waggled it’s finger at the brunet. “Not _a_ mouse. I’m _The_ Mouse.” It said as it stood up from where it was sitting. “But you can just call me Rod, if you want.” Rod was a soft brown and wore a black belt around its waist.

The ginger pushed himself up to the front to look down at the mouse while he spoke. “Okay well… Rod, you seem to know a lot more than we do, so why don’t you tell us about what exactly all of,” Isaac gestured to everything in front and behind him before continuing, “, this is?”

“Well, that’s a long _story_ Kiddos, but I can tell you if you want?” The mouse asked, stifling a small laugh at its pun. Max thought he would have laughed at it if he wasn’t still so upset about their teacher… falling.

“We want to know.” They said in unison, looking at Rod with eyes that said all it needed to know in terms of how much they wanted to hear the story. In what was probably the first five hours of being wherever they were, they’d already lost their teacher, they wouldn’t let another second pass without finding out what the spirit wanted with them.

Rod’s smile faltered a little, and the tiny creature let out a sigh. “Most of us call it Bookland, it’s just where the spirit sends you after it sucks you in.” The animal paused to look out towards the garden. “It’s a pretty nice place if you forget that none of it is real.”

The four glanced at each other in shock. “It’s not real?” Isaac asked eagerly. If all of it wasn’t real, then that would mean there was still a chance that their teacher was alright.

“Ah… Well, we think—no, we hope it is. Anyway, back to what’s going on here,” Rod waved it’s hands to signify that they were moving on again, treating Isaac’s question like an interruption. “We’re all given a place here. It’s supposed to be some sort of roll that needs to be played in whatever story the book wants us to act out.” The mouse said in a voice that was lacking the cheerfulness it had earlier.

“So we’re being forced to live out a story?” Isabel asked quietly, looking back in the direction of the room they’d come from.

“Precisely!” Rod said with a snap of its fingers. “Or well, a version of a story anyway. Most of us are done with that though…” The mouse said with another sad sigh before jumping onto Ed’s hand.

“Done how?” Ed asked, raising his eyebrow curiously as he watched the mouse run up his hand and onto his shoulder. The blond boy felt like there was still a lot that Rod wasn’t telling them, and when he looked at his friends expressions he knew he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

The mouse hummed a little before sitting down on the kid’s shoulder. “I’ll tell you later. First, we gotta get back to the others, I’ll show you kiddos where to go don’t worry.” The mouse said with a smile, obviously eager to get wherever they needed to be. None of them questioned Rod, they needed to do something about being stuck in ‘Bookland’ and it seemed the mouse had some ideas.

They spent a long time walking through the garden, gazing up at the oversized flowers that towered like trees and all the strange creatures that they caught glimpses of from under the bushes. Rod talked a lot, but most of them didn’t listen unless it seemed important, preferring to look at the scenery. A few of the oddities they saw as they walked were large insects, a good example being the large caterpillar that had been laying on an even larger mushroom, and mammal-like creatures that could turn invisible, often leaving eyes and toothy grins as the only evidence of their existence. Max was unaware of how much time it took for them to reach a circular clearing with normalish animals chasing each other around the area.

Rod cleared its throat loudly to catch the others attention, causing all of them to stop in their tracks to look at the mouse and the newcomers. “Children, meet the other victims of the book, my friends.” It said with a bright smile. Max found it strange that most of the creatures were animalistic; the only one who wasn’t was a man adjusting a strange looking top hat on his head. There was something that looked like an oversized dodo bird, a white rabbit, a creature wearing a turtles shell, a gryphon and a large cat.

“More? This place is full enough as it is! When is that petty excuse for a diary going to be satisfied?” The white rabbit grumbled as it straightened it’s coat and crossed it’s arms. The rest of the animals in the clearing rolled their eyes.

“C’mon it ain’t so bad. They might be exactly what we need to get outta here!” Rod answered as it launched itself off of Ed’s arm and onto the ground. “I promised to let them in on it, so stop complaining, they lost someone.” The mouse said with a frown before glancing back at the kids behind it and patting the ground.

Max glanced at Isaac, the ginger only giving him a small shrug before he sat down onto the grass. Everyone else followed suit until the group of animals and people were sitting in a tight circle, some looking very bored while others were eager to hear the plan.

“Alright, Terrance, why don’t you tell it? You’ve been here the longest, you practically made the plan.” Rod suggested as it pointed a small hand at the cat directly across from it. Terrance flicked its tail and let out a sigh, it was obvious the cat had told the plan many times over.

“Some of us, like me and William, the rabbit, have been here for a large amount of time. We’ve come to realize that the book is eating specific people that it needs to play a specific roll in the story it wants to tell. Over the years we’ve tried things like refusing to do what it wants us to, which got us nowhere. So now we, mostly I, have made a new plan that is… basically to do what it wants us to.” The cat, Terrance, said with a large toothy grin.

“The only problem we’ve encountered is that nobody knows what the story is. Well, not all of us, Mr. Crazy over there seems to know, but something went wrong with him when he got here and we can’t seem to get anything out of him other than ‘off with your head’, ‘heart’, ‘tarts’ and some riddle about a raven and a desk. ” Terrance huffed in annoyance as it spoke about the man who was currently giggling into the brim of his grey top hat.

The feline huffed before cocking its head to the side and giving the kid’s an eager look. “You don’t have any ideas do you?” It asked with a purr in it’s voice.

Max felt nervous under the glossy eyed gaze of the animals, but he did have an idea. It was the same itch as before, but it seemed closer to the surface where he could reach it this time. His brows knitted in concentration as he searched his mind for the answer.

“Something about an… Alice?” A voice said from beside him, prompting all of his thoughts to click together like puzzle pieces. The foods and the growing and shrinking, and the animals, why hadn’t it been this obvious before?

“Alice in Wonderland.” Max answered as he looked to his left and found himself looking at Isaac. He gave the ginger beside him a small smile and turned back to the cat in front of him before he could realize it was the first real smile he’d had all day.

The dodo clucked loudly and let the name run off of it’s tongue. “Alice… In wonderland. I have not heard of it.” The large bird said in a nasally voice.

“Same as me.” The brown hair said with a confused look on it’s face.

Terrance nodded, silently saying he felt the same as the rest of them. “It sounds interesting… Would you tell it for us?” It asked sincerely, giving the four a pleading look. It seemed that the group of animals had been in Bookland for quite some time.

Max looked around him, at the creatures and his friends. Everyone was still very upset about what had happened to Spender, but now there was a small bit of hope in their eyes. There was still some way for them to get out, some way for all of what happened to be righted, and that was enough for Max and, just by looking at his friend’s expressions, he could tell they felt the same. There was a small pause where the four looked at each other with small smiles and wet eyes, before speaking in an affirming unison.

“We’ll tell it for you.”


End file.
